Challenges in the Basic Education and Early Childhood Development (ECD) Centres Must Not Become a Phenomenon, Education Committee Chair

The Select Committee on Education, Sciences and the Creative Industries has called for coordination of resources in order to maximise the impact Early Childhood Development (ECD) have in society.

The Chairperson of the committee, Mr Makhi Feni, said the ECD centres are an empowerment tool whose role and importance should never be forsaken.

“It is really concerning to the committee that we read of challenges besieging the ECD sector when we had just transferred the function to the Department of Basic Education (DBE) Surely, our portfolio will not and must not fail our children, as there was a reason to migrate the function to education.”

“This is a function that requires everyone and any help with regards to the welfare and foundation phase education of our children. We are building a nation; and our actions include budget allocated for this specific function must support that,” emphasised Mr Feni.

Weekend reports indicated that several ECD centres, and some attached to schools, struggled with basic necessities like water, sanitation and food items especially in the rural Limpopo and the Eastern Cape.

Mr Feni said the committee would love to receive an update briefing on empirical and manifest challenges since the migration of the function to the DBE.

“We do not want a system that breaks our children and their early educators either through budget constraints or infrastructure. We call on the minister and the provincial MECs to prioritise the work around ECD centres. These are areas where our children spend the longest time without parental supervision and outside their homes.”

The committee also noted the challenges around payment of student teachers and tutors in Quintile One schools. Mr Feni said the committee accepted the fiscal constrained environment the DBE operated in. “But we do not want the challenges to become a phenomenon; the DBE must attend to this matter urgently wherever it is manifest.”

“Salaries of teachers are a no-go area for cuts and hiccups. These are meagre salaries, it is not as if these teachers are paid millions.”

Mr Feni said the committee’s interest was a functional system where all parents see value and trust that their children will turn out responsible and accountable young adults whose skills will be relevant to a 21st Century economy.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Republic of South Africa: The Parliament.